Niagara Falls in Winter

When you go to waterfalls you can't forget about the big boy - Niagara Falls. The water freezes at the base of the massive falls and the ice grows tall. The recent warmer weather - and today had some more sunshine and warm temperatures, has melted some of the icebergs and the fast flowing river has some clear spots downriver of the falls. The mist looks fun and provides some nice rainbows in the sunshine but the mist falls heavy like rain close to the Horeshoe Falls, thank goodness it wasn't too cold today.

Horseshoe Falls

American Falls

The SkyWheel

The view from the SkyWheel

Waterfalls in Winter

Well if you are going to freeze your ass off, you may as well do it in front of some waterfalls. The Niagara Escarpment through Hamilton has some great waterfalls. The water was flowing today after the recent above freezing temperatures that ended Friday (which was a nice break from the February blahs by the way). I went to Devil's Punchbowl and also to Tiffany Falls. Luckily I wore ice cleats because it was very slippery and I also got a little bit wet (that's what she said).

A ice volcano still survives at the base of the Devil's Punchbowl waterfall (picture at top) and looking down the escarpment onto Hamilton, framed by a tree on the left that survives on it's precarious perch, and a tall cross on the right which lights up at night, in the photo below.

The mist from the falls gather on the branches and freeze, the ice grows larger and larger looking for a cocktail to jump into. The water even started freezing on my camera.

They were supposed to be ice climbing on the frozen water at Tiffany Falls, below, but I think the premature spring thaw kind of put the kibosh on that plan.

Waterfalls & Paris in the Fall

It's fun to go to places that share the same name with more famous travel destinations. We were on a waterfall tour on the way to a train ride in Port Stanley when we ran out of time and just decided to continue looking at waterfalls. On our way back we stopped in Paris and to prove it Joe Fresh took our picture (I noticed that famous Cigar Guy had joined us in Paris - check out the photo after the jump). Paris was nothing like I imagined it, but they did have a river (the Grand), which also had a man made waterfall at a dam just upstream of the town.

We stopped at two waterfalls on this day. The first was Sherman Falls in Dundas.  This waterfall is nice and easy to walk to and is just a few minutes away from the road. The valley was filled with leaves falling to the ground and there was a nice flow of water. For some relaxing video of the waterfall click here.

And the second waterfall visited was Smokey Hollow Falls in Waterdown. The falls are right beside the parking lot and there is a nice viewing platform right beside the top as the creek goes over the edge. It's also not that hard to go around the platform and check out the waterfall from the front, as seen below.

See the photo where Cigar Guy joined us in Paris after the jump.

This is the guy (right) that was in the picture of Tiger Woods in a tournament in England and flubbed the shot - it went right towards a photojournalist. Everyone thought that Cigar Guy was a hoot and he started popping up in a lot of places on the internet.



Upcoming Cavalcade of Lights

See pictures of the 2009 Opening Celebrations at my blog post here.


Toronto will soon be lit up for the 2009 Cavalcade of Lights at City Hall. "The festivities kick-off on Saturday, November 28 at 7:00 p.m. with the lighting of Toronto's official Christmas tree, fireworks and live musical performances". Steven Page (former Barenaked Ladies) and Matt Dusk (I will be going to his show later in November) will be some of the singers at the event.

In honour of this upcoming night of lights I went to the opening of Niagara Fall's Winter Festival of Lights. Instead of Matt Dusk they had a lot of Disney characters and I even saw a lion on stage. Later they had two small (just over two minute) fireworks display. Their floodlights light up the falls, sometimes with colours.



Here is a short Youtube vid of some of the fireworks.

Late Fall Waterfalls

Another day of waterfall pictures. We missed the peak colours by a week and yesterday's high winds blew most of the leaves of the trees - but still the waterfalls remain. Our first stop was one of the hardest to get down into the valley: Decew Falls. It has two of the nicest looking waterfalls so it is worth the treacherous climb by rope down the steep cliff walls. Here are the lower Decew Falls.



Later we took in the waterfalls in the Balls Falls Conservation Area. The leaves on the ground show how late in the season we are getting.



This is a little easier to get in and out of. There was a lot more water flowing since our last visit to this site. The upper falls has a little bit of Canada and US Niagara Falls action going on. The main falls is a horseshoe type falls while off to the side there is a seperate waterfall coming through the rocks halfway up the slope. The first picture is the Upper and the second picture is the Lower Balls Falls.




Here are some of my video clips on Youtube of these and other waterfalls of Southern Ontario.

Waterfalls

I take advantage of the Thanksgiving holiday to explore some waterfalls. The rain holds off and the clouds don't deter me although climbing down to the base of some falls is quite an adventure.

We decide on Albion Falls and Chedoke Falls in Hamilton. Albion Falls, below, has a number of stages and is a nice looking waterfall with pretty easy access and parking. Albion is one of my favourite waterfalls - it has a number of steps in it, with a large cascade at the bottom. The creek does a quick S bend as it cuts through the valley, exposing the various layers of sedimentary rock.





Here I am in front of Albion Falls.



Later Joe Fresh and I head to Chedoke Falls which is harder to get to. There are stairs into the river valley but we don't know where they are so I take the hard way down. The erosion at the base of this waterfall is amazing. I grab some of the shale and clay and it just crumbles in your hands. The shale and clay layers are sandwiched between hard limestone otherwise erosion would have destroyed the escarpment in no time.



Chedoke Falls is one of the storm drainage outlets for Hamilton mountain built over old creek beds which were buried underneath the surface in concrete culverts. Catchbasins, storm drains and downspouts are tied into the pipes leading to the edge of the escarpment. Some adventurers have explored part of the network of large stormpipes that spill out their waters at the waterfall - which can be a dangerous hobby.

Fall in the Greater Toronto Area

The colour of the trees continues to change from the various shades of green into yellows, oranges and reds. This week the temperature is dropping like a stone and low temperatures will be at the freezing point. With the amount of rain we have been getting it won't be to long before the first snowfall hits the GTA. Until then enjoy the beauty of Fall.

The Fall of Summer

Summer was a fizzle and the days grow shorter as we head into Fall. Fortunately the weather is pleasant for a change and trees have already begun to change colour - just try to forget that winter is just around the corner.

Waterfalls enjoying the rain

The usual trickle of water in creeks and rivers during summer has swollen with the high levels of rain. Taking pictures along Silver Creek I make it out before the rain starts up again. The waterfalls are another place to go in the fall when the leaves turn colours.





Here is a link to waterfalls close to the Toronto area. If anyone knows of any waterfalls within the City of Toronto could they please add a comment to this post with the waterfall location? Here are a couple of hand made waterfalls in the Queens Quay area down by the Lake.

Ice climbing waterfalls in winter

Escarpment waterfalls are perfect for ice climbing during Canada's long winter.

With the sun shining on us we head out to explore some of the waterfalls around the Niagara Escarpment near Hamilton. Our first stop was to Borer's Falls where there were three ladies taking turns climbing the ice which looks like an upside down cauliflower. The warmer temperatures provide plenty of water flowing under the thick layers of ice.





The waterfalls of Spencer Gorge - Tew and Webster's Falls, become our next destination. Tew Falls water falls far down into the Gorge and it's height prevents the ice from building up and the spray from the water keeps the climbers away. The following picture is of the base of Tew Falls. We pass at going to Webster's Falls as the massive boulders at the base of the falls, coated in ice, would hinder us from getting good views of the falls.





So off we go to one of the best ice climbing locations - Tiffany Falls in Ancaster.





The climbers are daring adventure seekers and they carry quite the pile of equipment including some awesome ice picks. You also wouldn't want to walk on your hardwood floor with the climbing boots.






There is a group of climbers going up various parts of the large waterfall. Talking to one of the climbers I mention that I had a video posted on Youtube, taken a year ago, which shows one of the climbers trying to recover his pick from the frozen grip of the steep walls of frozen ice - just out of his reach. He said it was him, what a coincidence.



Several of his friends sent him a link to the video, posted below.



When one of the climbers removes a pin holding his rope at the top of the falls the hole left over pours out water like it is shooting out of a hose. The climbers climb both the ice and the shear rock cliffs and with the rock walls rising above the 21m level of the falls it makes for exciting viewing. For safety they all have partners on the ground holding onto to ropes so that any descent can be controlled.